garbage industry Archives

Customer Feedback

2 October 2025

October 1, 2025

Thank you so much, Lori, again. I can speak for both Omar and I when I say that it was an absolute pleasure to work with you and we are both glad to have had you on our team for the duration of this program. Your team got up to speed so quickly and your adjustments and expertise kept this program moving forward. The City now has an excellent look at the Call Center’s strengths and weaknesses – a much, much better look than we had before the program. This is due in no small part to the work you and your team did. Thank you for working with us.

David

City of San JoséEnvironmental

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Inclement Weather Challenges Logistics Customer Service Standards

25 February 2019

The winter of 2019 has been a nightmare from coast to coast. 25 degrees below zero in Chicago and blizzards on the west coast were only a couple of Mother Nature’s cruel tricks. Customers aren’t always understanding when it comes to delays in deliveries or services such as picking up their garbage. Often-times the only tool customer service representatives have at their disposal is to wait for updates on routes from the operations team and to hesitantly suggest service will be attempted “hopefully tomorrow”. We should be better prepared. We can surprise our customers with our great attitudes and realistic solutions. Here are some suggestions that will help your team push through the rest of this winter and prepare for spring weather concerns.
Scripting:
Deciding on the right words to use is an important public relations step. We need to effectively educate our customers on how they can prepare, what they need to do and what they can expect during inclement weather. Your website, automated phone messaging and the information communicated by customer service representatives all needs to be in alignment.
1. Preparation- Remember to think like a customer and don’t assume an instruction such as “clear the area of snow and ice” will mean the same thing to them as it does to a driver. These great tips should be posted on your website with a date and be recorded as part of your initial automated message and on hold message for customers.
2. Customer to Do List- Restate your service recovery process and include a reminder to check your website for updates. With product deliveries or something such as garbage service, if your process is that you will attempt service the next business day or following week, and that you would like the customer to leave carts out or make sure bins are accessible, then include that.
3. Safety- Highlight your commitment to the safety of your drivers and your customers.

Tips for Customer Service
1. Make sure your entire team is updated on the status of routes (hour by hour) and when it is anticipated that service will resume. Problems arise when we use a robotic response such
as, “If we don’t service you today, we will attempt service the following day.” Are you providing a Friday customer their service on Saturday? Will a truck be in that town the
following day?
2. Don’t assume all reports of a missed service or delivery are weather related. Complete your assessment.
3. When a storm is anticipated, the customer service and operations teams need to meet and talk through a plan.
4. To tactfully exit a conversation with an angry customer use something such as: I understand your frustration and appreciate that you took the time to call us today. Our first concern
is that you, your neighbors and our drivers are safe. We will be checking road conditions throughout the day.

Remember, once winter has passed, we will enter spring and summer where rains, flooding, hurricanes and tornados will create issues. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Take the time to review what has not worked for your team and your customers in the past and craft a plan for inclement weather that will allow great customer service to out weigh anything Mother Nature sends your way.

If you need help with scripting or specific difficult customer situations, please reach out to me at: lori_miller@tootyinc.com or 708-478-5772. A recent attendee to our Difficult Customer Training session shared: I had an upset (not furious, but frustrated) customer call this morning, I was able to use the tools I learned yesterday and by the end of our call she couldn’t stop thanking me. Thanks again for hosting the call, it was very informative!

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Action Versus Intention

7 May 2018

In customer service our attention tends to go towards putting out fires. Goals for improving or changing a process are put on the back burner for so long that we forget we ever had goals. It’s exciting and motivating to be able to share with you how others have been able to improve and innovate while handling the day to day demands that revolve around customer care. For all of us it is about taking head-knowledge, what we know about, and putting it into action.

Let me introduce you to 3 women of action!

Cynthia has been a Customer Service Representative since 2016. During the annual Tooty Training program, we focused on selling services- business to business. The Tooty script is great, but CSRs admitted they may only get 1 or 2 calls for new service in a month and aren’t confident when it comes to recommending service. I suggested that if there was someone who was talented with excel that the formula offered during training could be turned into an amazing tool that would allow a CSR or inside sales rep to enter in some details from the script and quickly determine a service that would best fit the customer’s needs. Cynthia not only offered to do it but, followed through! The tool will also shorten talk time.

In her role as Customer Service Manager, Destini attended the webinar Tooty offers to managers. The office had staffing issues. Destini said, “Our jobs are more than head count and phone calls”, which is what she discovered after she used the work-time-study formula provided by Lori Miller to document the number of customers that came to the office, inbound and outbound calls and customer e-mails. This data helped Destini and upper management make an informed decision about staffing.

Deana had been a CSR for just over a year before receiving the award as a 2017 Top 10 CSR in all of North America for Waste Connections. Her average for 2017 was 99! Deana said, “If I can do it, I know that you can do it. Just use the tools provided and the sky is the limit!” While on site providing one-on-one coaching to CSRs we noticed that small details that impact customer service and accuracy were not given attention. Every CSR had a different level of knowledge and there wasn’t time to share facts during the day. As the new Lead CSR, Deana took a Tooty suggestion to create a “Did you know” board where CSRs are incentivized to share what they learn each day- ah ha moments.

We don’t get very far by thinking about or wishing for things to be better. Action steps and deadlines make a difference.

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Preparing for A Price Increase to Your Customers

25 January 2017

There is a lot that goes into implementing a price increase to your customer base. Operations, sales, accounting and many others need to coordinate what will happen and when. Customer service needs to brace for an influx of customer calls by adding additional staffing, some of whom may be temps or support staff within the office. Unfortunately, some leaders simply settle on a vague directive to the team that they should try to keep as much of the P.I. as possible. They leave the details of what will be said and done to the person taking the call. It has been my observation that sales people talk too much and give up too much and that customer service representatives get nervous and go right into rolling back the price completely. Here is an example of a conversation I witnessed during a customer’s price increase.
Customer: I noticed there is an increase on my invoice. Can you explain that to me?
Representative: Sure- I see you did get an increase and that you have been our customer for a long time. I can actually roll that price back to what you were paying before. Is that okay?
Customer: I am happy to have you do that, but I was only calling to verify what the increase was about and to adjust our purchase order. I wouldn’t have argued about it because I haven’t had an increase from you and you do a good job for us.
To prevent this catastrophe from happening at your organization you need your team to be prepared. Remember that for most customers price is A factor in decision-making but it isn’t necessarily THE factor. Helpful and knowledgeable representatives partnered with dependable product or service makes price a detail to discuss versus an obstacle to overcome.
Here is your P.I. preparation check list.
 Scripts– Let Tooty create some effective and concise scripting for those who answer your calls. Often times sales leaders provide talking points, and too many of them, which don’t translate properly in a conversation.
 Training– Both sales and customer service representatives need to practice how they will handle these conversations. The practice will boost confidence and your ability to maintain your increase. Tooty offers customized classroom training and interactive webinars. We also recommend that the training is scheduled within a week of when the invoices with the increase will hit the streets. The timing of the role-play practice needs to be as close to the expected time for customer phone calls as possible.
 Strategy for new customers– You may have competitors who are also increasing their rates and their customers are calling you to compare prices. Be prepared to win those prospects.
 Celebration– Share your goal not only with sales, but customer service. What will you do to celebrate your team’s success?

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Scripts, Secret Shopper and Training

30 September 2016

A few years ago I had a prospective customer tell me that they did not need the services that Tooty provides because they had the best customer service he had ever witnessed. He added in that the customer service department was well-run, sales were up and their customer satisfaction scores were all above average. The conversation reminded me of a scene from the movie Elf where Will Ferrell burst into a coffee shop shouting congratulations because he saw a sign outside that stated, “World’s Best Cup of Coffee”. He took the sign at face value and thought the claim was true. The expression on the faces of both customers and employees revealed the truth. The only one who thought they served the world’s best cup of coffee was the coffee shop owner.
In today’s marketplace customers no longer accept company slogans and promises as truth and you should not assume that you and your team are as good as you can be. That is exactly why you need help from the team at Tooty Inc. While Tooty is most known for our secret shopper programs and innovative classroom and webinar training, we have a very precise process of evaluating actual customer experience and employee performance for those businesses and organizations that interact with new and existing customers primarily over the phone. We are a tested and trusted resource for executives who aren’t satisfied with past or present results and want specific ways in which to improve sales, retention and customer satisfaction which can’t be done with a slick new tool, but through improving employee skills, knowledge and performance.
1) Secret shopper calls provide an opportunity to learn what really happens when new customers call in inquiring about your product or service or an existing customer calls with a question or concern. Hold time, your automated message and transfers can impact what the customer perceives about your company long before someone answers. The questions asked and information given may be different from person to person sending mixed messages and confusion to your customers. You may believe you have a great sales process, but could discover that those who talk with your customers have created their own sales process that isn’t effective. Opportunities to provide solutions to your customers can be mishandled which can escalate to cancellations and other escalated issues. Every customer conversation is full of opportunity. Every employee deserves respectful and constructive feedback in order to increase knowledge and effectiveness while representing your organization. Call monitoring is also available if you have a phone system with this option.
2) On-site evaluation allows me to spend time with your customer service and sales representatives along with dispatchers as they talk to customers. This side-by-side time provides real detail on what happens from the moment a customer calls to the completion of the request. You may have great tools and processes that aren’t being used. For example, “I am going to send Joe an e-mail about this versus creating a work order that may get him in trouble.” I am able to provide critical input on how your team manages call volume, whether you have the right people on the phones and whether you have the right number of people to effectively handle both phone and e-mail requests from your customers. This on-site evaluation partnered with secret shopper calls and evaluations allows you to benchmark where your team currently is, clarify where you want them to be with skills and performance, and create a training plan to get there.
3) Scripting is best defined as a step by step process to handle customer conversations effectively. Scripts get a bad rap, but when used in a positive way they help insure that customers receive consistently amazing service. Scripts make new hire training easy and provide employee performance evaluations with clear scoring guidelines. We are experts at making great scripts for sales, dispatch, service issues, retention, collections and more.
4) Training should be ongoing with the intention of developing your customer service, sales and support staff into a better version of themselves year by year. We customize training based on your company or organization’s brand, your product or service and where you want the team to be in the future. Classroom and interactive webinars are available. Tooty training is fun and thought-provoking.

Our goal as a company is to uplift, encourage and help you and your team be better today than you were yesterday.

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C.S.I.- Customer Service Investigator

7 September 2016

One of the benefits of my side-by-side coaching with customer service representatives is that I not only get to hear customers share their concerns about their garbage service, but I get to find out whether or not the company has a working process for investigating and solving repeat service issues. The conversation below is based on an actual customer conversation. It is a perfect case study for us to use to talk about the importance of developing your team’s investigative skills to improve customer service. Service issues can’t be solved if the real problem has not been identified and there must be a clear procedure regarding your repeat issues.

Customer: Hi Mary, it’s Susan Brooks. CSR: Hi Susan! What may I help you with today? Customer: You guys missed us again. I don’t get it. We have been with you for a month. You missed us 3 weeks in a row and finally we had our trash picked up last week. Now we were

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Automated Messages and Hold Music Can Create Angry Customers

12 April 2016

Having irritating hold music or an out of date or out of tune automated message for your customers is the equivalent of having a sign on your door that says Keep Out. In customer service we often talk about hold time and how long a customer is willing to hold before hanging up. But how many of you have completely overlooked the customer’s experience while sitting on hold?

Many companies use an automated attendant to help during busy times. It is thought of as a way to help manage call volume. The automated attendant and its messaging should present an accurate impression of the company’s brand while making the customer feel comfortable and relaxed, even entertained. Technology used properly helps the customer feel as if the hold time wasn’t as long as it really was. Unfortunately, most managers don’t know what the customer is experiencing unless a customer takes the time to complain about it. I’d like to share a real experience from a few years ago. One of our secret shoppers called a company and here is the transcript of what took place.

Thank you for calling. To access customer service press zero now. If you know your party’s extension, please enter it now. Caller pressed zero. CSR: Unintelligible whisper by the person who answered. Caller: hello? CSR: Sniffling and crying. Caller: Hello? Are you okay? CSR screaming: You did this. You made him leave. Caller: Hello? CSR: Stay, stay away. Unintelligible screaming and crying. Caller: Hello? Is anybody there? CSR: Screaming and crying. Caller: Hello? Hold music comes on and the caller is on hold for 50 seconds. The phone rings and the initial automated message starts over. The caller hangs up after 3:38 convinced that something awful is happening within the office.

What a customer wouldn’t know, and our secret shopper didn’t, is that this company used a radio station for its on-hold music. As luck would have it, a Rascal Flatt’s song about domestic violence complete with crying and screaming began to play at the very moment the caller pressed zero for a CSR. While this is an extreme example of an automated messaging system gone wrong, some of you have problems with your automated messaging and music that are driving away customers or creating an angry customer out of a normally nice person.

There are 4 key details for you to evaluate when it comes to your own phone system.

1- What is the on hold music like? If you have the same musical notes repeat every 3 seconds, loud or out-of-tune music, a customer might feel angry by the time someone answers. All instrumental music is not the same. You might love fiddles or drums but too much in the wrong arrangement will cause your customer’s blood pressure to rise.

2- Check your after hours message. A Christmas holiday message in April gives the impression that no one will actually return a call. A prospective customer might get the feeling there won’t be a return call from you and hang up without you ever knowing that an opportunity was lost.

3- How many seconds go by before your company or organization name is given in the automated message? If the caller doesn’t hear your company name in the first couple of seconds he/she may hang up thinking it is a wrong number.

The wording of the message and the voice used to deliver the

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Get Rid of the Robot

25 February 2016

Five year old Hunter asked me why he couldn’t burp out loud in Chick-fil-A. I tried to keep from laughing as I told him it wasn’t polite. I didn’t know if a 5 year old knew the meaning of polite and I really wanted to make sure he understood that burping out loud was not a good habit for a 5 year old to develop. So I asked him if he knew what it meant if I said he was not polite. He explained to me from his kindergarten perspective that not being polite was the same as not being nice. He understood. In recent training with some millennial CSRs I overheard them using some words in ways that didn’t make sense to me. I never heard of salty customers or being salty because of customers before! I could have overlooked that and moved on, but I wanted to understand. Because of my curiosity I now know that salty is more than seasoning.

Any manager can give a new CSR the scripts as a part of new hire orientation. But an AMAZING Customer Service Manager takes the time to make sure a CSR understands the reason behind the questions and details on each script. To only say something or ask something because it is on the script and to not know what the words mean or the intent makes a person robotic. For any person to be excellent at their job there needs to be a comprehension of the reason or purpose behind what we do. The “why” must be provided and understood.

There are certain things that should be memorized because they don’t change. In customer service, the way we start and end our calls doesn’t change so those skills should be memorized. There are some things that are situational in every industry, like knowing when to ask if concrete or roofing is a part of a project that requires a a roll-off container. In customer service, the questions we ask and the information we give is often situational. That is why you can’t afford to operate like a robot and only ask and answer because a script tells you to. You need to know the meaning behind the skills, when things apply and when they don’t and you need to be curious enough to ask questions. That is how employees become experts at what they do and become real assets to your company.

Those companies that measure or grade a customer service representative on call handling skills may use a secret shopper or call monitoring program such as the one that we offer here at Tooty Inc. The scoring is based on a script and required skills for different customer situations. A performance scoring system helps to flush out areas where a customer service or sales representative needs to improve in their understanding of why a certain question or information is relevant. It also helps you look at your team as a whole so that you can create additional training to educate everyone on the reason behind required questions and information.

As a manager you need to know the “whys”, too. Whenever scripting and performance scores are involved managers and the representatives can become hyper focused on the score. Scores often translate to bonuses or become a part of the employee file which makes the focus understandable. I have met several managers along the way who have directed their team to do everything on a script even if it doesn’t apply to the conversation in order to have a high score. Imagine how strange it would seem if your current customer was calling to buy something and your representative asked, “How did you hear about us?”

We need to change our approach from telling people what to do, to doing everything we can to help them understand why. Get rid of the robot and develop an industry expert.

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Let me introduce you to 3 women of action!

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